← LeaderboardsInvestigatorsiAttributed = a PI's even-split share of each grant — a $1M grant with 2 PIs counts $500K each.
Lowell Observatory
Flagstaff, AZ
$43,258,350
Total funding
100
Grants
Funding over time
peak $13.6M · FY2005–25$20M$15M$10M$5M$0
'05
'06
'07
'08
'09
'10
'11
'12
'13
'14
'15
'16
'17
'18
'19
'20
'21
'22
'23
'24
'25
Funding mix
By agency
NASA$19,383,371 · 57
NSF$12,872,475 · 42
DOD$11,002,504 · 1
By mechanism
—$43,258,350 · 100
Investigators at Lowell Observatory
InvestigatorsiAttributed = a PI's even-split share of each grant — a $1M grant with 2 PIs counts $500K each.
Exposure= the full size of every grant they're on ($1M each).
Rising Stars
First grant in the last 5 yrs
Not enough data
Emerging Leaders
6–10 yrs in
Not enough data
All-Time
Most funded here, all years
Not enough data
Largest grants
HIGH SENSITIVITY OBSERVATIONS OF GEOSTATIONARY SATELLITES AT HIGH SPATIAL RESOLUTION. PR# 72-9101-16.$11,002,504
· FY2016 · Department of the Navy
OBJECTIVES. THE MISSION ACCESSIBLE NEAR-EARTH OBJECT SURVEY OR MANOS BEGAN IN LATE 2013 AS A PHYSICAL CHARACTERIZATION SURVEY OF NEWLY DISCOVERED SUB-KM LOW DELTA-V NEOS. WITH ~100 NEW NEOS BEING DISCOVERED MONTHLY THESE CRITERIA PROVIDE CLEAR SELECTION CRITERIA FOR STUDYING ONLY THE MOST INTERESTING OBJECTS. MANOS IS ABLE TO CHARACTERIZE ABOUT 10% OF NEW DISCOVERIES WHICH ARE SELECTED TO BE AMONGST THE MOST SPACECRAFT ACCESSIBLE BODIES IN NEAR-EARTH SPACE. OUR APPROACH IS TO BUILD A COMPREHENSIVE DATA SET OF ASTROMETRY PHOTOMETRY AND SPECTROSCOPY THROUGH QUEUE REMOTE AND TARGET OF OPPORTUNITY OBSERVATIONS. WE PROPOSE A SECOND GENERATION MANOS THAT WILL CONTINUE THIS IMPORTANT WORK WHILE BUILDING UPON THE SUCCESSES OF THE INITIAL SURVEY. WE WILL FOCUS ON THE FOLLOWING OBJECTIVES OVER THE NEXT THREE YEARS: - ESTABLISH A SYSTEM FOR RAPID COARSE CHARACTERIZATION OBSERVATIONS (E.G. SPARSE LIGHTCURVES AND COLORS) OF NEWLY DISCOVERED NEOS ON SMALL APERTURE TELESCOPES TO INFORM MORE DETAILED FOLLOW-UP ON LARGER FACILITIES. - EMPLOY A UNIQUE SUITE OF TELESCOPIC ASSETS TO CONTINUE BUILDING AN UNPRECEDENTED DATASET FOR PROBING THE DIVERSITY OF PHYSICAL PROPERTIES IN THE NEAR-EARTH OBJECT POPULATION. - EXPAND ON THE FIRST GENERATION MANOS SURVEY WITH NEW SPECTROSCOPIC CAPABILITIES THAT WILL PROVIDE DEEPER INSIGHT INTO THE COMPOSITIONAL DISTRIBUTION OF NEOS. - FOLLOW-UP UNEXPECTED RESULTS FROM THE FIRST GENERATION SURVEY INCLUDING AN ATTEMPT TO BETTER UNDERSTAND THE ROLE OF PLANETARY ENCOUNTERS IN MODIFYING NEO PROPERTIES AND A PROBE OF COMPOSITIONAL LINKS BETWEEN SMALL NEOS AND METEORITES. - CONTINUE TO BUILD A NETWORK OF TELESCOPIC FACILITIES AND OBSERVERS TO SERVE AS INFRASTRUCTURE IN THE EVENT OF TIME CRITICAL OBSERVATIONS SUCH AS THE DISCOVERY OF AN IMPACTING ASTEROID (E.G. 2008 TC3). IN TOTAL THE NEXT GENERATION MANOS WILL CONTRIBUTE TO A LARGE UNIFORM CATALOG OF NEO PHYSICAL PROPERTIES THAT WILL HAVE IMPLICATIONS FOR UNDERSTANDING FORMATIVE AND EVOLUTIONARY PROCESSES IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM FOR INFORMING ACCURATE IMPACT HAZARD ASSESSMENT AND FOR IDENTIFYING THE MOST VIABLE SPACECRAFT TARGETS IN NEAR-EARTH SPACE. METHODOLOGY. OUR APPROACH IN CONDUCTING THIS SURVEY WILL LEVERAGE EXPERIENCE GAINED THROUGH OUR FIRST GENERATION SURVEY. THIS INCLUDES OBSERVING PROTOCOLS FOR CHALLENGING TARGETS THAT CAN BE FAINT AND MOVING AT HIGH NON-SIDEREAL RATES AND THE USE OF FULLY DEVELOPED REDUCTION AND ANALYSIS PIPELINES. WE PLAN TO CONTINUE THE USE OF NOAO FACILITIES (GEMINI NORTH AND SOUTH SOAR 4M KITT PEAK 4M) AND FACILITIES AT LOWELL OBSERVATORY INCLUDING THE 4.3M DISCOVERY CHANNEL TELESCOPE. WE WILL EXPAND OUR EFFORTS TO INCLUDE THE USE OF SPEX+MORIS AT NASA S IRTF AS WELL AS COORDINATING WITH ONGOING PHOTOMETRIC SURVEYS AT SEVERAL SMALLER TELESCOPES. THIS SUITE OF FACILITIES WILL BE USED TO OBTAIN VISIBLE IMAGES FOR ASTROMETRY AND LIGHT CURVE PHOTOMETRY VISIBLE SPECTRA AND NEAR-IR SPECTRA. WE WILL TARGET OBJECTS WITH DIAMETERS<1 KM WHICH REMAINS A RELATIVELY UNEXPLORED SIZE REGIME. WE WILL ALSO PRIORITIZE OBJECTS BASED ON DYNAMICAL PROPERTIES NAMELY OBJECTS WITH LOW DELTA-V AND LOW MOID ORBITS. WE INTEND TO TARGET APPROXIMATELY 10% OF NEWLY DISCOVERED OBJECTS BRINGING OUR SAMPLE TO ~500 OBJECTS. WE WILL CONTINUE TO SHARE SURVEY PROGRESS REGULARLY THROUGH OUR PROJECT WEBSITE. RELEVANCE. THE DATA SET PROVIDED BY MANOS WILL PROVIDE ONE OF THE LARGEST REPRESENTATIVE SAMPLES OF NEO PHYSICAL PROPERTIES IN THE WORLD AND WILL INCLUDE INFORMATION ABOUT SIZES SHAPES DYNAMICS AND COMPOSITIONS. OUR FOCUS ON LOW DELTA-V OBJECTS WILL HELP TO QUANTITATIVELY DETERMINE THE NUMBER OF VIABLE MISSION TARGETS (EITHER HUMAN OR ROBOTIC) IN THE NEO POPULATION. FINALLY THE PHYSICAL PROPERTIES (E.G. SPIN STATE COMPOSITIONS) MEASURED FOR INDIVIDUAL MANOS TARGETS AS WELL AS THE DISTRIBUTION OF PROPERTIES ACROSS THE POPULATION CAN DIRECTLY INFORM ASSESSMENTS OF IMPACT HAZARD.$1,126,372
· FY2017 · National Aeronautics and Space Administration
KSS - THE KUIPER SPECTRAL SURVEY: A LARGE SCALE COMPOSITIONAL STUDY OF THE KUIPER BELT: WE PROPOSE A LARGE SCALE COMPOSITIONAL SURVEY OF THE KUIPER B$1,103,242
· FY2009 · National Aeronautics and Space Administration
An Advanced, Large Monolithic Imager for the Lowell Observatory 4.2-meter Discovery Channel Telescope$1,075,000
· FY2010 · MPS
THE MISSION ACCESSIBLE NEAR-EARTH OBJECT SURVEY (MANOS) CONDUCTS OBSERVATIONS TO CHARACTERIZE THE PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF NEAR- EARTH OBJECTS (NEOS) WHOSE ORBITS ARE READILY ACCESSIBLE TO SPACECRAFT EXPLORATION. THROUGH TARGETED OBSERVATIONS OF NEAR$855,646
· FY2021 · National Aeronautics and Space Administration
THE GOALS FOR OUR PROPOSED THREE-YEAR STELLAR-OCCULTATION PROGRAM ARE TO: (I) OBSERVE OCCULTATIONS BY PLUTO WITH THE OBJECTIVE OF UNDERSTANDING ITS C$818,989
· FY2015 · National Aeronautics and Space Administration
CAREER: Bridging Minor Planet and Meteor Science in the Era of Big Data$808,708
· FY2020 · MPS
The Evolution of Massive Stars as a Function of Metallicity: Closing the Loop in the Local Group$807,583
· FY2010 · MPS
PROPOSED RESEARCH: OUR FOCUS IS ON DETAILED INVESTIGATIONS OF SELECTED OBJECTS THAT ARE EITHER INHERENTLY INTERESTING OR THAT HAVE EXTREMELY FAVORABL$792,000
· FY2014 · National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NEW HORIZONS IMAGES OF PLUTO REVEALED VALLEY NETWORKS AND CHANNELS WITH A VARIETY OF MORPHOLOGIES SUGGESTIVE OF THE EROSIVE ACTION OF FLUID. THEIR DISCOVERY WAS STARTLING AS NO MATERIAL IS KNOWN THAT IS STABLE AS A LIQUID UNDER THE TEMPERATURE AND PRESSURE CONDITIONS PREVALENT ON PLUTO'S PRESENT-DAY SURFACE. VARIOUS HYPOTHESES HAVE BEEN PROPOSED TO ACCOUNT FOR THESE FEATURES INCLUDING THEIR BEING FORMED THROUGH GLACIAL RATHER THAN FLUVIAL ACTION OR THAT LIQUIDS COULD HAVE EXISTED ON PLUTO'S SURFACE DURING EXTREME CLIMATIC EPISODES IN THE PAST. WE PROPOSE TO TEST ANOTHER HYPOTHESIS: THAT LOW MELTING POINT MIXED FLUIDS COULD EXIST EVEN AT THE EXTREMELY COLD TEMPERATURES AND LOW PRESSURES PREVALENT IN THE KUIPER BELT TODAY. THE ANTIFREEZE EFFECTS ON WATER OF SALT OR ALCOHOL ARE FAMILIAR. SUCH FREEZING POINT SUPPRESSION IS A COMMON FEATURE OF MIXTURES. EXAMPLES INVOLVING MATERIALS KNOWN TO BE PRESENT AT PLUTO'S SURFACE INCLUDE N2 + CH4 (A SMALL EFFECT) AND CH4 + C2H6 (A MUCH LARGER EFFECT). WE PROPOSE TO TEST OUR HYPOTHESIS VIA A PRACTICAL AND COST-EFFECTIVE COMBINATION OF THEORETICAL AND LABORATORY TECHNIQUES. THIS APPROACH ENABLES US TO SCREEN MANY MORE COMBINATIONS THAN WE COULD EVER HOPE TO DO IN THE LABORATORY BY PROGRESSING FROM INEXPENSIVE AND STRAIGHTFORWARD CALCULATIONS THROUGH A MORE SUBSTANTIAL INVESTMENT IN MORE DETAILED NUMERICAL SIMULATIONS AND FINALLY TO TIME-CONSUMING AND EXPENSIVE LABORATORY CONFIRMATIONS. EACH STEP OF THIS CHAIN WE INVEST MORE TIME AND EFFORT IN SMALLER SUBSETS OF POTENTIAL MIXTURES HOMING IN ON THOSE THAT POSSESS ESPECIALLY INTERESTING PROPERTIES. EACH APPROACH CAN BENEFIT FROM WORK ON THE OTHERS SO IT IS NATURAL TO COMBINE THEM WITHIN A COORDINATED INVESTIGATION. THE PROPOSED PROJECT IS RELEVANT TO THE SOLAR SYSTEM WORKINGS PROGRAM ELEMENT BECAUSE IT OFFERS A SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION INTO THE PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF WHAT COULD BE A KEY CLASS OF GEOLOGICAL MATERIALS IN THE FAR OUTER SOLAR SYSTEM SPECIFICALLY FLUIDS THAT COULD FORM IN THE SURFACE OR NEAR-SURFACE ENVIRONMENTS OF BODIES SUCH AS PLUTO TRITON ERIS MAKEMAKE AND HAUMEA. IF AS WE HYPOTHESIZE SUCH FLUIDS CAN EXIST THEY COULD ENABLE A RICH PALETTE OF GEOLOGICAL PROCESSES TO OPERATE ON THESE BODIES REVOLUTIONIZING UNDERSTANDING OF GEOLOGY IN THE OUTER SOLAR SYSTEM.$756,141
· FY2020 · National Aeronautics and Space Administration
GOALS: INVESTIGATIONS OF THE CHEMICAL COMPOSITION AND PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF COMETS ARE IMPORTANT BECAUSE IN ADDITION TO REVEALING THE CHARACTERISTICS OF COMETS THEMSELVES THE COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE OF COMETS HOLD UNIQUE CLUES TO CONDITIONS IN THE EARLY SOLAR NEBULA THE SOLAR SYSTEM'S FORMATION PROCESSES AND EVEN THE EVOLUTION OF LIFE ON EARTH AS INFLUENCED BY COMET IMPACTS OVER THE PAST 4.6 BILLION YEARS. THE GOALS OF OUR PROPOSED RESEARCH ARE TO UNDERSTAND THE PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF COMETS BY APPLYING A VARIETY OF OBSERVATIONAL TECHNIQUES. WE PARTICULARLY EMPHASIZE SIMULTANEOUS OR COORDINATED OBSERVATIONS WITH DIFFERENT INSTRUMENTATION. WE AIM TO (1) MEASURE THE BASIC PROPERTIES OF COMETARY NUCLEI BY STUDYING COMETS WHOSE DUST COMAE ARE SO ANEMIC THAT THE SIGNAL FROM THE NUCLEUS CAN BE EXTRACTED OR ARE AT SUFFICIENT DISTANCES SUCH THAT THE COMA NO LONGER DOMINATES THE SIGNAL (2) MEASURE AND MODEL COMA JET MORPHOLOGY TO DETERMINE THE ORIENTATION OF THE ROTATIONAL AXIS THE LOCATION OF SOURCE REGIONS THE LIFETIME AND VELOCITIES OF THE OBSERVED SPECIES AND THEIR RESPECTIVE PARENTS AND HOW THE PRODUCTION OF MATERIAL FROM THE SURFACE OF EACH NUCLEUS VARIES WITH TIME AND SOLAR ILLUMINATION AND (3) MEASURE THE COMPOSITION AND PRODUCTION RATES OF COMETS AS A FUNCTION OF ORBITAL MOTION. DUE TO THE STRONGLY INTER-RELATED ASPECTS OF THESE MEASUREMENTS RESULTS FROM THE PROPOSED PROJECTS WILL ENABLE US TO SIGNIFICANTLY IMPROVE OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE PHYSICAL NATURE LOCATION AND CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF ACTIVE SOURCE REGIONS ON THE NUCLEUS AND HOW THESE PRODUCE THE OBSERVED COMA PHENOMENA. PREVIOUS RESULTS: WE HAVE HAD A NUMBER OF ACCOMPLISHMENTS UNDER CURRENT PAST FUNDING INCLUDING IMAGING PHOTOMETRY AND/OR SPECTROSCOPY OF 20+ SHORT-PERIOD AND 10+ LONG-PERIOD COMETS. OUR PRIMARY EFFORTS INCLUDED COMPLETING ANALYSES OF COMET ISON PERFORMING SUPPORT OBSERVATIONS FOR ROSETTA TARGET 67P/CHURYUMOV- GERASIMENKO AND STUDYING SEVERAL CLOSE-APPROACHING COMETS - 209P/LINEAR 252P/LINEAR 45P/HONDA-MRKOS-PAJDUSAKOVA AND 41P/TUTTLE-GIACOBINI-KRESAK - WITH MULTIPLE SCIENCE GOALS. WE'VE ALSO RECENTLY COMPLETED A ROTATIONAL STUDY OF 49P/AREND-RIGAUX AND OBTAINED ADDITIONAL NUCLEUS DATA OF 6P/D'ARREST 2P/ENCKE AND 103P/HARTLEY 2. PRODUCTION RATES WERE DETERMINED AND IMAGES OBTAINED OF SEVERAL OTHER COMETS. PROPOSED RESEARCH: IN THE PROPOSED INTERVAL WE PLAN DETAILED INVESTIGATIONS FOR A VARIETY OF COMETS INCLUDING SEVERAL THAT HAVE BEEN OR ARE POTENTIAL NASA SPACECRAFT MISSION TARGETS. NUCLEUS STUDIES WILL BE MADE OF COMETS 2P/ENCKE 6P/D'ARREST AND 103P/HARTLEY 2. ROTATIONAL PERIODS AND HOW THEY CHANGE WITH TIME WILL BE MEASURED AND WE WILL INVESTIGATE CLAIMS FOR COMPLEX ROTATION AND WHEN PRESENT ATTEMPT TO DETERMINE DETAILS OF THE SPECIFIC ROTATIONAL STATE INVOLVED. COMA IMAGING WILL BE OBTAINED FOR COMETS 21P/GIACOBINI-ZINNER 38P/STEPHAN-OTERMA 46P/WIRTANEN AND 88P/HOWELL TO STUDY AND MODEL JET MORPHOLOGY; ON-GOING OBSERVATIONS OF 41P/TUTTLE-GIACOBINI-KRESAK WILL ALSO BE MODELED UNDER THIS GRANT. EXPECTED RESULTS INCLUDE THE ORIENTATION OF THE ROTATION AXIS THE ROTATION PERIOD THE LOCATION AND SIZE OF EACH SOURCE REGION AND THE OUTFLOW VELOCITY OF THE GAS. PLANNED SPECTROSCOPY OF WIRTANEN WILL BE COMBINED WITH SIMILAR DATA RECENTLY OBTAINED FOR TWO OTHER VERY CLOSE APPROACHING COMETS -- 252P/LINEAR AND 45P/HONDA-MRKOS-PAJDUSAKOVA -- TO MEASURE THE ELUSIVE SPECIES DIATOMIC SULFUR. A NEW EXTREMELY HIGH RESOLUTION SPECTROGRAPH ON OUR 4.3-M TELESCOPE DCT WILL BE USED TO MEASURE ISOTOPIC RATIOS AND OTHER PROPERTIES IN THE BRIGHTEST COMETS. PRODUCTION RATES WILL BE OBTAINED TO INVESTIGATE TEMPORAL TRENDS AND/OR DETERMINE BASIC COMPOSITION. COORDINATED OBSERVATIONS WITH OTHER INVESTIGATORS WILL BE PURSUED WHEN PRACTICAL. WE WILL ALSO OBTAIN OBSERVATIONS OF NEWLY DISCOVERED COMETS AS CIRCUMSTANCES WARRANT.$731,972
· FY2020 · National Aeronautics and Space Administration
MASSIVE STARS ARE THE COSMIC ENGINES THAT POWER THE FAR-INFRARED LUMINOSITIES OF DISTANT GALAXIES AND DOMINATE THE IONIZATION OF NEARBY HII REGIONS. THEY ARE THE PRIMARY SOURCE OF CARBON AND OXYGEN IN THE UNIVERSE AND THEIR CORE COLLAPSES MANUFACTURE ALL OF THE ELEMENTS HEAVIER THAN FE. THE RE-IONIZATION OF THE EARLY UNIVERSE WAS THANKS TO POPULATION III MASSIVE STARS AND THE SUPER-MASSIVE BLACK HOLES WE FIND IN THE CORES OF GALAXIES TODAY WERE SEEDED AS A RESULT OF THE BLACK HOLES THAT FORMED FROM THE FIRST GENERATIONS OF MASSIVE STARS. UNDERSTANDING MASSIVE STAR EVOLUTION IS THE KEY TO UNLOCKING MANY ASTROPHYSICAL PROBLEMS. THE LARGEST UNCERTAINTY IN MASSIVE STAR EVOLUTION IS THE QUESTION OF HOW WOLF-RAYET (WR) STARS FORM. OUR PROPOSAL WILL DETERMINE THE FUNDAMENTAL PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF WRS USING FOUR ARCHIVAL NASA DATA SETS FOR A CRITICAL COMPARISON WITH PRESENT DAY EVOLUTION MODELS. IT IS GENERALLY ASSUMED THAT MASSIVE STARS SPEND MOST OF THEIR POST-MAIN-SEQUENCE LIVES WRS. FOR DECADES WE HAVE BELIEVED THAT WRS FORM AS A RESULT OF STELLAR WINDS STRIPPING OFF THE H-RICH OUTER LAYERS OF A STAR LEAVING BEHIND A BARE STELLAR CORE. IN THIS PICTURE WRS ARE A NORMAL STAGE IN THE EVOLUTION OF THE MOST MASSIVE STARS. RECENTLY THIS SCENARIO HAS BEEN CALLED INTO QUESTION. STELLAR WIND MASSLOSS RATES ARE NOW KNOWN TO BE SIGNIFICANTLY LOWER THAN PREVIOUSLY THOUGHT ALTHOUGH WHETHER THIS IS A FACTOR OF 3 OR 10 REMAINS UNCLEAR. IF THE LATTER IS CORRECT THEN THIS POSES A SERIOUS PROBLEM FOR THE FORMATION OF WRS. THIS HAS CREATED A PARADIGM SHIFT WITH INCREASED IMPORTANCE ATTACHED TO THE ROLE OF BINARY EVOLUTION WITH ROCHE-LOBE OVERFLOW PERFORMING THE STRIPPING. ATTEMPTS TO DISTINGUISH WHICH SCENARIO IS MORE PREVALENT IS COMPLICATED BY THE POSSIBILITY OF PAST MERGERS; I.E. JUST BECAUSE A WR IS NOT A BINARY TODAY DOES NOT PROVE IT WAS NOT ONE IN THE PAST. WE WILL TACKLE THIS QUESTION FROM A FRESH PERSPECTIVE DETERMINING RELIABLE FUNDAMENTAL PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF WRS AND SEEING WHETHER THEY BETTER MATCH THE SINGLE OR BINARY STAR EVOLUTIONARY MODELS. IF THEY AGREE WITH THE SINGLE-STAR MODELS THAT IS COMPELLING EVIDENCE THAT WRS ARE A NORMAL PART OF THE EVOLUTION OF MASSIVE STARS. IF THEY DISAGREE PERHAPS EITHER BINARY EVOLUTION PLAYS AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN THE FORMATION OF WRS OR THE SINGLE STAR MODELS COULD BE IMPROVED. FOR INSTANCE WE KNOW THAT THE MASS-LOSS RATES DURING THE LUMINOUS BLUE VARIABLE AND RED SUPERGIANT PHASES ARE POORLY CONSTRAINED BY OBSERVATIONS. IF HIGHER MASS LOSS RATES DURING THESE PHASES WERE INCLUDED COULD WE ACCOUNT FOR ALL OF THE WR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES (INCLUDING CHEMICAL ABUNDANCES) THAT WE FIND? EITHER RESULT WILL HELP US LEARN MORE ABOUT THE ORIGIN OF WRS WHILE ALSO TESTING AND HELPING IMPROVE THE EVOLUTIONARY MODELS. FOR THIS TEST TO BE MEANINGFUL WE MUST HAVE ACCURATE MEASUREMENTS OF THE FUNDAMENTAL PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF WRS (SUCH AS EFFECTIVE TEMPERATURES BOLOMETRIC LUMINOSITIES AND CHEMICAL ABUNDANCES) AS WELL AS HAVING A GOOD UNDERSTANDING OF THE UNCERTAINTIES ON THESE QUANTITIES. TO ACHIEVE THIS WE HAVE A SELECTED A STATISTICALLY LARGE SAMPLE OF 27 WRS IN THE SMALL AND LARGE MAGELLANIC CLOUDS WHICH POSSESS EXCELLENT UV SPECTRA IN THE MAST IUE ARCHIVE. THIS WAVELENGTH IS CRUCIAL AS IT CONTAINS KEY DIAGNOSTIC RESONANCE LINES SUCH AS CIV 1550. TO THESE WE ADD OUR OWN HIGH QUALITY MAGELLAN OPTICAL (AND WHEN NEEDED NEAR-IR) SPECTROPHOTOMETRY. FORTY PERCENT OF OUR SAMPLE HAS ALSO BEEN OBSERVED IN THE FAR-UV WITH FUSE PROVIDING ADDITIONAL DIAGNOSTICS. FINALLY WE WILL INCORPORATE NASA 2MASS AND SPITZER IPAC PHOTOMETRY WHICH EXTEND THE SPECTRAL ENERGY DISTRIBUTION INTO THE IR. WE WILL MODEL EACH OF THESE COMBINED DATA SETS USING CMFGEN A STELLAR ATMOSPHERE CODE THAT INCLUDES THE MANY COMPLICATIONS NEEDED TO MODEL THE SPECTRA OF THESE STARS. THE USE OF THIS COMBINED DATA SET ACHIEVES WHAT ONE COULD NOT HOPE TO DO FROM ANY ONE OF THEM CONSISTENT WITH THE AIMS OF THE ADAP.$719,836
· FY2020 · National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NEAR-EARTH OBJECTS (NEOS) ARE ESSENTIAL TO UNDERSTANDING THE ORIGIN OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM THROUGH THEIR COMPOSITIONAL LINKS TO METEORITES. AS TRACERS OF OTHER PARTS OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM THEY PROVIDE INSIGHT TO MORE DISTANT POPULATIONS. THEIR RELATIVELY SMALL SIZES AND COMPLEX DYNAMICAL HISTORIES MAKE THEM EXCELLENT LABORATORIES FOR STUDYING ONGOING SOLAR SYSTEM PROCESSES SUCH AS SPACE WEATHERING PLANETARY ENCOUNTERS AND NON-GRAVITATIONAL DYNAMICS. KNOWLEDGE OF THEIR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES IS ESSENTIAL TO IMPACT HAZARD ASSESSMENT. FINALLY THE PROXIMITY OF NEOS TO EARTH MAKE THEM FAVORABLE TARGETS FOR ROBOTIC AND HUMAN EXPLORATION.HOWEVER IN SPITE OF THEIR SCIENTIFIC IMPORTANCE ONLY THE LARGEST NEOS HAVE BEEN WELL STUDIED AND A REPRESENTATIVE SAMPLE OF PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS FOR SUB-KM NEOS DOES NOT EXIST.WE PROPOSE HERE FOR SUPPORT OF THE MISSION ACCESSIBLE NEAR-EARTH OBJECT SURVEY (MANOS). MANOS IS A FULLY ALLOCATED MULTI-YEAR SURVEY OF SUB-KM NEOS THAT IS READY TO PROVIDE A LARGE UNIFORM CATALOG OF PHYSICAL PROPERTIES (LIGHT CURVES + COLORS + SPECTRA + ASTROMETRY) REPRESENTING A 100-FOLD INCREASE OVER PRESENT KNOWLEDGE OF NEOS IN THIS SIZE RANGE. FROM THIS COMPREHENSIVE CATALOG WE WILL DERIVE GLOBAL PROPERTIES OF THE NEO POPULATION AS WELL AS IDENTIFY INDIVIDUAL TARGETS THAT ARE OF POTENTIAL INTEREST FOR EXPLORATION.WE WILL ACCOMPLISH THESE GOALS FOR APPROXIMATELY 500 MISSION-ACCESSIBLE NEOS ACROSS THE VISIBLE AND NEAR-INFRARED RANGES USING TELESCOPE ASSETS IN BOTH THE NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN HEMISPHERES. MANOS HAS ALREADY BEEN AWARDED OR IS GUARANTEED TIME ON 10 DIFFERENT TELESCOPES RANGING IN APERTURE FROM 1 TO 8 METERS AND WILL GRADUALLY BEGIN IN LATE 2013 WITH FULL OPERATIONS ESTABLISHED BY MID-2014. WE WILL USE PROVEN ANALYSIS TOOLS TO MODEL AND CHARACTERIZE EACH OF THE OBJECTS OBSERVED BY MANOS. WE WILL CONDUCT THIS SURVEY WITH COMPLETE TRANSPARENCY SHARING OUR TARGET LISTS AND DATA PRODUCTS ON PUBLICLY-ACCESSIBLE WEBSITES.A REPRESENTATIVE SAMPLE OF MORE THAN 500 LARGE KM-SCALE NEOS HAS ALREADY BEEN OBTAINED. THE FRONTIER OF NEO RESEARCH INVOLVES PUSHING OBSERVATIONAL LIMITS TO BUILD AN EQUIVALENT REPRESENTATIVE DATABASE OF THE SMALLEST NEOS. MANOS REPRESENTS THIS NEXTGENERATION OF NEO SURVEYS MADE POSSIBLE BY ESTABLISHING A REGULAR CADENCE OF OBSERVATIONS TO ACCESS SMALL NEWLY DISCOVERED NEOS WITHIN DAYS OR WEEKS OF FIRST DETECTION BEFORE THEY FADE BEYOND OBSERVATIONAL LIMITS.MANOS WILL ADDRESS THE FOLLOWING KEY TOPICS RELEVANT TO PLANETARY SCIENCE AND EXPLORATION:- COMPOSITIONAL DISCREPANCIES BETWEEN KM-SCALE NEOS AND METEORITES- SPACE WEATHERING PROCESSES BY TARGETING SMALL OBJECTS THAT ARE DYNAMICALLY YOUNG AND THAT UNDERGO FREQUENT SURFACE-RESETTING PLANETARY ENCOUNTERS- THE INFLUENCE OF PLANETARY ENCOUNTERS ON NEO ROTATIONAL PROPERTIES- THE NEO BINARY RATE AND TIDAL FORMATION OF BINARY SYSTEMS- RADIATIVE TRANSFER OF REGOLITH-COVERED SURFACES BY ACCESSING OBJECTS ACROSS A RANGE OF VIEWING ASPECTS- DETERMINING PHYSICAL CRITERIA FOR PLANNING OF ROBOTIC AND HUMAN EXPLORATION MISSIONS$711,785
· FY2014 · National Aeronautics and Space Administration
BASE DESCRIPTION THIS AWARD IS MULTIPLE YEAR AWARD TO LOWELL OBSERVATORY FOR PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR EDWARD W. DUNHAM FOR THE KEPLER PROJECT AWARDED U$692,872
· FY2008 · National Aeronautics and Space Administration
THE LAKES AND SEAS OF TITAN ARE COMPOSED OF METHANE AND ETHANE SATURATED WITH NITROGEN FROM THE ATMOSPHERE BUT THEY ALSO CONTAIN SMALLER AMOUNTS OF TRACE HYDROCARBON AND OTHER SPECIES.$666,754
· FY2021 · National Aeronautics and Space Administration
COMETS AND ASTEROIDS PROVIDE IMPORTANT CLUES ABOUT THE ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. FOR OVER 20 YEARS LOWELL OBSERVATORY HAS MAINTAINED CATALOGS OF ORBITAL ELEMENTS FOR ALL KNOWN MINOR PLANETS. THESE ASTEROID (ASTORB) AND COMET (COMORB) CATALOGS ARE ACTIVELY CURATED AND REPRESENT THE CURRENT CENSUS OF MORE THAN OF A MILLION MINOR PLANETS IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM. WITH NASA PDART SUPPORT WE HAVE BEEN WORKING FOR THE PAST TWO YEARS TO MODERNIZE THE ASTORB DATABASE AND ASSOCIATED SYSTEM OF SOFTWARE. THIS HAS INVOLVED MODIFYING BACKEND INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPING A NEW WEBSITE (ASTEROID.LOWELL.EDU) AND ADDING PHYSICAL PROPERTIES (E.G. ALBEDOS LIGHTCURVE PERIODS SPECTRAL TYPES) TO THE DATABASE. THIS WORK IS ONGOING AND WILL REACH COMPLETION IN MID-2019. FROM THIS WORK WE HAVE IDENTIFIED A NUMBER OF IMPROVEMENTS THAT WILL FURTHER INCREASE COMMUNITY ACCESS TO THE DATABASE AND EXPAND ITS CAPABILITIES. WE PROPOSE HERE TO DEVELOP NEW FEATURES THAT WILL BUILD UPON THE ASTORB AND COMORB DATABASES. THIS WORK WILL CONSIST OF THREE PRIMARY COMPONENTS. FIRST WE WILL INCORPORATE INTO OUR SYSTEM THE OPEN SOURCE DIRECT N-BODY INTEGRATOR GENGA (GRIMM&STADEL 2014) WHICH IS DESIGNED FOR GPU-BASED HARDWARE. N-BODY INTEGRATORS FOR MINOR PLANET ORBITS TYPICALLY USE CPUS AND THUS ARE LIMITED TO A HANDFUL OF PROCESSING CORES. GPUS HAVE A MUCH LARGER (~100X) NUMBER OF CORES WHICH MAKES THEM VERY WELL SUITED TO PARALLELIZING A LARGE NUMBER OF SIMPLE FLOATING POINT CALCULATIONS LIKE THOSE NEEDED FOR ORBIT INTEGRATION. THIS SOFTWARE WILL FACILITATE EFFICIENT MAINTENANCE OF OUR DATABASE AND THE CREATION OF NOVEL OBSERVATIONAL PLANNING TOOLS. OUR SECOND MAJOR TASK WILL INVOLVE ADDING COMETS AND INTERSTELLAR OBJECTS TO THE DATABASE. FOR OVER 20 YEARS COMORB HAS ONLY BEEN USED INTERNALLY AT LOWELL THIS WILL BE THE FIRST TIME THESE DATA ARE MADE PUBLICLY AVAILABLE. WE WILL AUGMENT OUR DATABASE TO HANDLE COMETS AND COMPLEXITIES ASSOCIATED WITH THEIR ORBITAL AND BRIGHTNESS PROPERTIES. FOLDING COMETS INTO THE ASTORB ECOSYSTEM WILL ENABLE USE OF THE OBSERVATIONAL PLANNING TOOLS ON THE PROJECT WEBSITE. OUR THIRD MAJOR TASK WILL INVOLVE BUILDING A BRIDGE BETWEEN THE LOWELL DATABASE AND THE JPL SMALL-BODY ORBIT DETERMINATION SYSTEM. SINCE THEIR INCEPTION THE LOWELL CATALOGS HAVE SERVED AS INDEPENDENT CALCULATIONS OF ORBITAL ELEMENTS REGULARLY COMPUTED AS NEW DATA BECOME AVAILABLE. AS THE NUMBER OF KNOWN MINOR PLANETS HAS GROWN BY ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE SINCE ASTORB S INCEPTION AND WILL CONTINUE TO DO SO IN THE LSST ERA MAINTENANCE WILL BECOME INCREASINGLY CHALLENGING. THIS PROBLEM CAN BE GREATLY AMELIORATED IF WE CAN OUTSOURCE THE INITIAL COMPUTATION OF ORBITAL ELEMENTS. FORTUNATELY JPL PRODUCES THE HIGHEST QUALITY ORBITAL ELEMENTS IN THE WORLD ARE WELL PREPARED TO HANDLE THE INFLUX OF OBJECTS FROM LSST AND HAVE AN API (APPLICATION PROGRAMMING INTERFACE) FOR ACCESS TO THEIR ORBITAL ELEMENTS. WE WILL WORK CLOSELY WITH THE SOLAR SYSTEM DYNAMICS GROUP AT JPL TO INGEST THEIR ORBITAL ELEMENTS INTO ASTORB SO THAT WE MAINTAIN ALL OF OUR ASSOCIATED FUNCTIONALITY WHILE BUILDING LONG-TERM STABILITY. IN EXCHANGE FOR RECEIVING ORBITAL ELEMENTS FROM JPL WE WILL PROVIDE THEM OUR CURATED PHYSICAL PROPERTIES DATABASE WHICH HAS BEEN ADDED TO ASTORB DURING OUR FIRST ITERATION OF PDART FUNDING. THESE PHYSICAL PROPERTIES WILL THEN BE ACCESSIBLE THROUGH THE JPL SYSTEM. WE WILL IMPLEMENT A VIRTUAL OBSERVATORY (VO) INTERFACE TO ASTORB WHICH WILL PROVIDE OPEN PUBLIC ACCESS TO THE DATABASE AS WELL AS FACILITATE THE TRANSFER OF DATA TO JPL. THE TWO MAIN THEMES OF THIS PROPOSAL ARE INCREASING ACCESS TO THE ASTORB AND COMORB DATA AND EXPANDING THEIR CAPABILITY FOR FUTURE USERS. THE TASKS IN SUPPORT OF THESE THEMES ARE DIRECTLY IN LINE WITH PDART OBJECTIVES TO (1) CREATE A REFERENCE DATABASE TO ENABLE PLANETARY SCIENCE RESEARCH AND (2) TO DEVELOP SOFTWARE TOOLS THAT WILL ENHANCE FUTURE SCIENCE INVESTIGATIONS.$656,657
· FY2020 · National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Collaborative Research: The Importance of Binarity on the Origin of Wolf-Rayet Stars$596,774
· FY2023 · MPS
Massive Star Birth, Life and Death: Closing the Loop in the Local Group of Galaxies$579,519
· FY2016 · MPS
Collaborative Research: A Survey for Multiplicity of Low-mass (Class M) Dwarf Stars$564,909
· FY2016 · MPS
THREE MAJOR DATABASES OF MINOR PLANET ORBITAL ELEMENTS ARE CURRENTLY MAINTAINED IN THE UNITED STATES: THE MINOR PLANET CENTER MPC CATALOG, JPL HORIZO$560,411
· FY2016 · National Aeronautics and Space Administration